Many materials are formed into desired shapes using a combination of heat and pressure. Some materials, however, tend to expand differently than the tooling used to form the materials when subject to heat. Discrepancies between the coefficient of thermal expansion of materials being formed and tooling used to form the materials may induce defects in the materials. Accordingly, some methods utilize tooling sheets specifically designed to reduce coefficient of thermal expansion discrepancies. Traditional methods for making such tooling sheets can be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.
Some conventional methods for forming materials into desired shapes use inductive heating to heat the materials. Inductive heating typically utilizes specifically-shaped susceptors to heat and shape the materials. Traditional processes for shaping such susceptors also are difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.